What extra costs should we budget for with private primary school?

[Keyboardpacifist]

We're just starting to do the initial "can we afford independent school" for primary school and although I know all schools are different, I'm wondering if there were any costs that caught you out? Partially for our affordability calculations but also comparing schools. Some include things that others don't. Our list so far is:

• Fees
• Basic uniform (is everything specialist or no)
• Sports uniform
• Before school care
• After school care
• Music/drama lessons
• Lunch

What have I missed? We're not far enough away from any of the potential schools to use their bus route so no hidden costs there, just petrol.

DC piano lessons are £20 a week.

Gosh hadn't even considered tech costs. Something else to ask at the open days as none of them mention this on their websites!

Ah brilliant. So £1k would cover lessons and exam fees and most if not all of the sheet music

We are paying £10 a week so £390 per academic year for a small group drama lesson to allow LAMDA exams. Individual lessons are £20 per week.

That is pretty cheap, even a few years ago we paid £25+ per lesson. Plus instrument hire/purchase.

Keeping up with the joneses … but external clubs.. if you want to keep up on the sports side even in prep you need external sports clubs and of course music lessons on top … etc

Laptop in seniors …

I know! We thought that too. But it is a small prep, it isn’t like my son’s school at all.

The school DD went to didn’t have to ask parents approvals for any extra costs under £50 - my goodness they found a lot of things to charge for around the £40 mark - all ‘enriching’, such as archery, or a singing workshop. Also, all SEN support (my daughter is dyslexic) had to be paid for - I think it was about £300 a term for two sessions a week with a specialist teacher.

I was going to mention SEN support, it’s an extra cost if you need it.

I also know some people who decided their dc needed tutoring on top of private school which seemed barmy to me!

We don't have all of these costs - for us lunches and school day trips are all included (just pay for residential trips - these start from Yr3 though so 4 residentials per child throughout their time at primary). We buy secondhand uniform which works out cheaper than a new state primary uniform, and no more expensive than normal clothes they'd have to wear anyway. We walk to school as we bought a house in the next street.

We pay £10 a week for after school activity clubs, ours don't use wraparound. We pay £50 per year per child for staff gifts (given at Christmas and end of year, as a collection - not compulsory but everyone does it and nobody opts out). In nursery-Yr2 the majority throw a birthday party for the year group, and you get lots of invites, so budget for cards/gifts.

School holiday activity camps are a social/skill-building opportunity rather than simply childcare - this means you might end up sending them to a camp that is across town and only open 9.30-3.30 because they want to learn musical theatre /gymnastics/film-making with their mates and then need childcare for the start/end of day rather than conveniently sending them to a holiday club that is nearby and covers a full working day.

Dcs like nice and expensive stationery, despite school supplying all the necessities. I don't mind paying for that as I'm rather partial to a nice pen myself.

Judging from this thread it really varies from school to school. If you want them to learn an instrument you need to budget in for instrument hire as well (£200 a year) at dd2’s school. But unlike PPs many after school clubs like drama and art are free, and so is their laptop.

Clubs - some may be run by the school and be cheaper, or run by outside providers which typically cost more. For example, our prep had running club for £25/term, and other clubs were £70-150 per term. I think Lambda for drama was quite expensive (we didn’t do that so can’t recall the actual price).

Music lessons (optional, instrument specific) were £300 per term for a 30 min lesson per week.

Residential trips in UK ranged from £400 in year 4 to £660 for year 6.

Optional ski trip in year - £1600 (included flights, ski school, equipment, accommodation, meals, other activities off the slopes).

Each year our class reps would ask for a donation to cover some PTA organized activities, staff gift cards for Christmas, non-uniform day donations etc. Think this was around £30/year per child.

Other things that might come up is the ask of donations for raffle prizes for events the school or PTA hosts - like for a summer fair, food for harvest festival collections/charity etc. as well as buying raffle tickets, or tickets for entry to optional PTA organised events (quiz, parents drinks etc).

School uniform - try to find out how much is “branded”/must be bought at specialist shop (or sencond hand sale) vs non-branded can be bought at cheaper stores. Definitely take advantage of second hand uniform sales. Our prep ran them each term and had loads of stuff, a lot in decent condition - have to get in early though to get the good stuff!

Dont forget to factor in cost of either buying or renting an instrument. A £75 violin will sound like it cost £75 and you have listen to it for years to come. Brass and woodwind instruments can be very expensive.

Some schools are better than others with the uniform. We have to get the big stuff from school blazer but socks, tights, shirts/blouses and swimwear can all be bought generic which helps. There was a big jump for prep (Y3) with a fee hike, more expensive uniform items like a £150 blazer and things like LAMDA exams. Y5 again another jump we had to buy an ipad, case, keyboard and pen (£650 from the school shop) and also the school starts offering expensive trips like £2000 a pop for skiing and sports tours- yes optional but you don’t want to have to say no if all their friends are going. We don’t pay for lunches or standard trips though. Also maybe a more controversial one but not uncommon to be taken on expensive days out with friends like west end theatre trips, concerts, theme parks etc. and whilst not necessary you might feel pressure to reciprocate.

Nearly at the end of private for both kids from 5 and have bought almost no uniform new. Went to the summer fete the June before each started and kitted them out from the second hand sale then topped up as needed.

I put aside £250 a month per DC for any extras:

My DC's music lessons are £28 per half an hour 121 and they do not loan instruments (recommend gear4music to buy secondhand and sell back to them). Terms are 10 weeks long.

Lamda is £180 a term for group lessons.

uniform - I found the initial outlay ridiculous (blazer over £100!) but we have very good second hand sales which has helped a lot.

Trips - in London too which helps as anything involving a coach seems to be extortionate. Theatre trips around £30, zoo/ farm trips £45. At least one per term.

Residentials yr3 onwards start at £350 for two nights at an activity centre but ramp up to £1,000 for trips abroad by yr 6.

Presents for parties and parties themselves - we have been to some ridiculously extravagant parties (champagne and canapes for the parents included) down to a diy party at home, just try not to get sucked in- you do you. We usually spent £15-£20 on gifts (often stock up on LEGO sets when on sale) parties fizzle out by yr5/6 in my experience anyway.

Presents for teachers and TAs - My year group do a £50 collection in September and the reps then buy all the gifts for the teachers. I am glad about this because it seems a bit competitive in other year groups.

The main thing to bear in mind is the fee inflation. Ours almost doubled between reception and yr6 (thanks to VAT but also a couple of really high % increases especially after covid and the Ukraine war). I would bank on 8% and be happy if it is lower.

This. A lot of parents will be sending their kids to all kinds of extra curriculars, summer camps, workshops etc. If your children are good friends, they will try to encourage you to join so the kids have a better time together. Swimming, dance, tennis, horseriding and skiing are extremely common ones and you may need to factor in at least one of those. Some families will be organising group ski trips over winter or half term hols so the kids can take private lessons together.

Doing an activity outside school is a powerful friendship bonding factor for the kids and parents. There are many threads on MN about how hard it is to get close to the "school gate mum cliques". The same mums are not building up friendships in the 5mins before pickup but they're probably stuck on the same tennis court for an entire hour waiting for their kids to finish training. So they inevitably end up chatting and becoming closer.

Private school is full of that sort of thing. It boils down to spending money for activities that give you proximity to other parents and kids.

Our fees include wraparound 0730-1800. We
pay extra for lunches, trips (ski trip from year 5, UK residential from Year 4, French trip in year 6, multiple smaller day trips each term, author visits, music lessons, after school swimming lessons (ones in school time are free), materials/ingredients for food tech/DT.

As someone else mentioned, our fees have doubled between reception and year 6, and we won’t be able to afford to carry on at the same school for secondary as there’s another massive jump at that point.

The expensive holiday clubs are really worth factoring in, I agree. My sons have friends who are doing specialist sports holiday clubs for 7 weeks out of the 9 week holiday - obviously they then have a head start on those sports in term time, so if your child actually wants to be on the A teams they need to be doing those expensive clubs too! Also need lots of fancy sports equipment - in year 6 there were kids in our year group who had cricket bats worth £400, cricket helmets, pads etc.

Yes holiday clubs are so expensive - ours are off for nearly 10 weeks this summer - we’ve taken 3 weeks annual leave which still leaves 7 weeks to cover. We’ve had to resort to a couple of very expensive residential camps for a couple of the weeks as ran out of other options.

£10 per child ‘donation’ for birthday parties. Obviously you can give a gift instead but in our school you’d be the minority.

£50 annual donation for teacher gifts.

More holiday clubs needed.

Yes, if your child plays an instrument investing in a good one once they stop growing (depending on the instrument) is a good idea.
We rent instruments and will be able to buy the full size ones, with a price reduction, once they are needed.

Ah all good thoughts thank you so much! Yes re: instrument hire or purchase costs I have a few instruments myself so I'm relatively up to date with those costs 😅

Birthday parties at my DD school tend to cost around £500-600 (although one parent blew the budget with a hamleys sleepover). Presents tend to be £15-20 each.
Presents for teachers/class reps £100pa
Our uniform runs to around £500pa - budget for replacement items too as things get lost frequently.
Music lessons cost c£1000pa too.
I set aside £2500 per month into a seperate account to cover the termly fees/clubs etc, I hate it coming out in lump sums over the year. Just about covers it for Y3 child, excluding school uniform or trips. Probably will need to double it for Secondary! Honestly it’s went up massively over the last few years, if you’re having to really scrimp I’d say you can’t afford it. Also think how expensive secondary is in comparison, once you’re in the private system you’re not going to want to go backwards.